Works for solo piano performed by pianist Seymour Lipkin, and for orchestra performed by the Gardner Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Douglas Boyd.
Today’s podcast takes us on a journey through Franz Schubert’s life. The smaller forces of a chamber ensemble seem a fitting vehicle for this early orchestral work, the second piece on the podcast, which shows more connection to Haydn and Mozart than Schubert’s contemporary, Beethoven. Schubert was still a teenager at the time and, though the composer’s talent is quite evident, the piece hews closely to the traditional classical structure. Written about two months before his death, Schubert’s final piano sonatas offer a tantalizing glimpse of where the composer’s music was headed, had he lived through his 30’s. By turns stark, witty, serene, and driving, the 19th sonata still uses the traditional four-movement form while covering a wide-ranging emotional and harmonic terrain.
